You’ve probably seen that your favorite pro boxer prepares for upcoming fights by swimming laps around the pool.
Newer boxers have begun to complement their roadwork sessions with sessions in the pool or open water.
So is swimming good for boxing? Let’s find out!
In this article, we’ll discuss the main reasons why swimming is good for boxing.
Why Is Swimming Good For Boxing?
Swimming is good for boxing because:
- It Increases Your Lung Capacity
- It Strengthens Your Upper Body
- It Removes Stress From Your Legs
- It Improves Your Breathing Rhythm
Swimming is a non-traditional way of training for boxing, but it has so many benefits and shouldn’t be ignored as a tool to build endurance and challenge your cardiovascular system.
It Increases Your Lung Capacity
First, swimming is good for boxing because it increases your lung capacity.
Research shows that swimmers have a significantly greater lung capacity than runners.
Swimming also trains your body to use oxygen more efficiently, which can be useful for boxers.
Power and fluidity while swimming comes from the breath, not from the body’s muscles.
Similarly, because boxing is like a marathon and a sprint at the same time, your cardiovascular capacity decides how successful you are.
You can have all the skill and talent in the world, but if you gas out in a minute, you won’t survive in the ring.
Increased lung capacity is also important for proper breathing rhythm in boxing, which we’ll discuss later in this article.
After spending some time supplementing your boxing skills with swimming, your body will become more efficient, needing less oxygen to get the same work done.
It Strengths Your Upper Body
Next, swimming is good for boxing because it strengthens your upper body.
Swimming engages your whole body, including:
- Your back
- Your shoulders
- Your arms
- Your core
Research shows that water resistance training is comparable to traditional weightlifting when performed with enough intensity over a long-term period.
Instead of lifting weights, swimming is a great, low-impact way to tone your muscles and strengthen your upper body.
Swimming also strengthens your body for boxing without forcing you to clench or tense up.
This will be counter-intuitive to many weightlifters, but if you’ve ever swam or boxed, this makes perfect sense.
While a weightlifter has to flex and clench in order to bench or deadlift, a swimmer will sink if he does the same.
Similarly, a boxer performs better in the ring when he’s relaxed and keeping his body loose.
It Removes Stress From Your Legs
Next, swimming is good for boxing because it removes stress from your legs.
Almost all boxing training is leg-intensive, no matter whether you’re skipping rope, shadow boxing, or hitting the heavy bag.
Each time you box, you put pressure on your:
- Knees
- Shins
- Feet
- Ankles
Pro boxers put intense stress on their legs, training for multiple sessions almost every day.
By introducing a low-impact exercise like swimming, this can reduce the chances of suffering common boxing injuries, like strains or sprains.
This makes swimming a great alternative to roadwork. Instead of doing laps around the park, you can do laps around the swimming pool with the same cardiovascular effect.
While many old-school coaches swear by roadwork as the foundation of boxing fitness, many pro boxers today have begun to add swimming as well.
Instead of doing solely roadwork, these boxers adopt a hybrid-model and add swimming on days that they don’t do roadwork.
While a lighter boxer will feel a lower impact when hitting the ground while running or boxing, heavier boxers will feel this impact more on their lower body.
Because of this, swimming can be great for heavier boxers who want to reduce the stress of roadwork and being on their feet for boxing training.
It Improves Your Breathing Rhythm
Lastly, swimming is good for boxing because it improves your breathing rhythm.
In both swimming and boxing, it’s your breath that drives you forward, not your body.
To be successful in both, it’s important to ration energy and pace your breathing.
No matter how strong you are or how hard you paddle, how fast and efficient you swim is set by your breathing rhythm.
In boxing, you’ve seen how your breathing rhythm is essential to your movements.
For example, you’ve probably heard some boxers make noise when they punch. This is the way boxers set their breathing rhythm and make sure that they exhale.
When combined with increased lung capacity, you’ll be unstoppable in the ring.
This combination allows you to take long, deep breaths that will keep you calm and ready in the ring.
Conclusion
Now that you know the benefits of swimming for boxing, we hope that you’ll add it to your training routine.
Some of your favorite pros use it during their training camp to supplement their roadwork, including:
- Wladimir Klitschko
- Deontay Wilder
- Vasiliy Lomachenko
Each boxer is known for never tiring in the ring and always outworking their opponents.
Deontay Wilder has even claimed that he’s never done a roadwork session once in his life, swearing by the benefits of swimming.
On the other hand, Michael Phelps (one of the most successful swimmers in history) says he trains boxing to help with his swimming.
He sees the connection and firmly believes that training boxing makes him a better swimmer.
If the world’s best swimmers and boxers are training both ways, then that’s a good sign that you should too.
If you’re having trouble deciding what boxing equipment to get, check out these articles:
- Best Boxing Jump Ropes
- Best Boxing Gloves
- Best Boxing Hand Wraps
- Best Boxing Head Gear
- Best Boxing Shoes
- Best Boxing Groin Protectors
Sources
- Sable M, Vaidya SM, Sable SS. Comparative study of lung functions in swimmers and runners. Indian J Physiol Pharmacol. 2012 Jan-Mar;56(1):100-4. PMID: 23029972.
- Wirth K, Keiner M, Fuhrmann S, Nimmerichter A, Haff GG. Strength Training in Swimming. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Apr 28;19(9):5369. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19095369. PMID: 35564764; PMCID: PMC9100337.